Greg Zoeller

The latest brief in Indiana‘s same sex marriage case comes from first responders who are in favor the right of the couples to marry.

More than 100 police officers, firefighters and emergency medical providers signed the brief, which will be filed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Tuesday. Among the first responders signing the brief are couples who were married in other states and want Indiana to recognize their marriage.

A Marion County judge is allowing a lawsuit involving a dispute between state superintendent Glenda Ritz and the State Board of Education to move forward.

The judge Tuesday denied the Attorney General’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by four residents against the State Board of Education.

The issue at the center of the lawsuit is whether State Board of Education members violated the state’s open meeting law when they decided via email to send a legislative leaders a letter, asking them to intervene in how school’s A-F grades were being calculated.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says the state’s Public Integrity Coalition is developing strategies from the local level up to state government aimed at curbing public corruption. Those strategies could include new legislation.

The Public Integrity Coalition, formed three months ago, brings together groups such as the Attorney General’s office, the State Board of Accounts – which is responsible for auditing all levels of government in the state – the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, and law enforcement groups around the state.

Ten states have joined Indiana‘s appeal of a federal judge‘s ruling that same-sex marriage in the state should be legal.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the attorneys general from the states asked the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm that each state has the right to set its own marriage laws. The states joining the case are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller has given further direction to county clerks on the same-sex marriage licenses issued last week before a federal appeals court put the practice on hold.

The guidelines are meant to help clerks navigate what some say is confusion about the status of the licenses issued between a federal judge‘s ruling last Wednesday that the state could not bar same-sex couples from getting married and early Friday evening, when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals delayed the rule pending Zoeller‘s appeal.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday halted same-sex marriage in Indiana, granting a motion by Attorney General Greg Zoeller to stay the effects of a ruling that struck down the state’s gay marriage ban.